Neoliberalism, Climate Change, and Displaced and Homeless Populations: Exploring Interactions Through Case Studies

Climate change and housing precarity are increasingly recognized as socially produced crises. While academic literature frequently examines neoliberalism in relation to climate change or housing individually, the combined effects of neoliberal political and economic decisions on displaced and homeless populations remain underexplored. This paper investigates how contemporary neoliberal ideologies intersect with climate vulnerability across different regions and scales. The guiding research question asks what the combined effects of neoliberal policies are on the interaction between climate change and vulnerable populations globally.

The authors develop a theoretical framework centered around three re-emerging themes in neoliberal discourse: economic profit generation, individualization, and short-termism. Neoliberalism prioritizes corporate interests, marketization, and deregulation while dismantling public welfare systems. Under the logic of individualization, structural failures such as extreme poverty, homelessness, and forced migration are incorrectly framed as individual failings or matters of personal choice. Furthermore, short-termism favors immediate, low-cost interventions over comprehensive, long-term preventative planning required for sustainable climate adaptation and housing security.

To examine these dynamics across different levels of analysis, the study analyzes three distinct case studies. First, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, worsening water stress and political instability intersect with post-fossil fuel economic transitions, pushing vulnerable populations into precarious urban housing and exposing migrant laborers to extreme occupational heat stress. Second, the refugee situation in Kenya highlights how displaced populations face systemic resource constraints under market-driven frameworks. Third, tiny homes programs in the U.S. and Canada illustrate how local housing interventions often operate as short-term pilot projects that fail to address the root systemic causes of homelessness.